And you can bet the St. Joseph Hill senior went into Monday’s CHSAA encounter against Notre Dame Academy remembering what happened against the Gators on Jan. 10.

It was then Carey’s Hilltoppers watched a sizable lead shrink to nothing before losing the game all together in the final minute.

"It’s the first thing I thought about going into this game. We didn’t want to feel like we did after we played Notre Dame the first time because we were heart-broken," said Carey. "(That first outcome) motivated us."

Where Carey’s concerned, that might be an understatement.

Carey scored a game-high 37 points and grabbed 17 rebounds as the Hilltoppers again built an early double-digit lead, but this time staved off a late NDA run en route to a 72-64 CHSAA victory over the host Gators in Grymes Hill.

Not only did Carey’s latest eye-popping performance help the Hilltoppers (4-4 CHSAA, 8-12 overall) capture their third straight victory (and fourth in five games), but it also helped the Fairfield University-bound forward come within 28 points of the 2,000-point mark with four regular-season games and playoffs still to come.

The 6-foot Carey, who currently averages 26.3 points per game, will get an opportunity to hit the mark on Staten Island when the Hilltoppers visit St. John Villa on Thursday night.

Carey currently sits in third place all-time on the Island, only trailing Moore Catholic’s Sue Harnett (2,111) and Susan Wagner’s Tonya Obey (2,059).

The Hilltoppers opened Monday’s contest sizzling, reeling off a 19-4 Carey-led run that included a pair of three-point plays, a couple of buckets off steals and a nifty pull-up jumper.

Nicole Imbesi added four points in the period as Hill opened a commanding 21-9 lead at quarter’s end.

"I thought we did a really good job with our press in the first quarter," said Hill coach Jenny Driscoll, who also received strong outings from Sophia Stark (nine points, eight rebounds), Imbesi and point guard Brittany Spoto (seven points). "We went man and committed to it fully and it gave us a huge run to start the game."

And, with Carey on the bench for nearly the last five minutes of the opening half because of foul trouble, Hill’s role players stepped up to the challenge as Alyssa Barry (five points), Kelsey Smith (five points) and Spoto (three points) and Allie Dunn each delivered key buckets to help the vistors take a 39-29 lead into the lockers.

With the lead down to nine (50-41) entering the final eight minutes, the Gators, as expected, made a significant run behind Kasey Althoff, Elena Sanchez and Vanessa Hannafin to get within three points (53-50) with 5:49 left and four points (65-61) with 1:39 to go.

But the Hilltoppers received consecutive buckets from Imbesi, Stark and Spoto in a 41-second span to increase the Island school’s lead back to 10 (71-61) with just 47 seconds on the clock.

"Defense was the difference," said Carey, who compared the endings of both games. "We weren’t complacent. We played hard for the entire 32 minutes and I think the team has been playing together as well as we have at anytime this season."